U.S. Presses Pakistan to Go After Specific Militant Leaders

More than 5,000 troops, 2,000 police and 10 times the number of civilians killed on 9/11 have died in Pakistan in terrorist attacks, according to Pakistani government figures.

But Clinton acknowledged that those sacrifices are rarely discussed in the international media. She raised the deadliest attack since bin Laden's death; suicide bombers who killed about 80 just-graduated recruits for a paramilitary force.

"The loss of those young men who were training to protect their country was a tragedy," she said in her most animated moment of the news conference. "And I don't know if enough Americans understood what that meant."

But Clinton also criticized the portrayal of the United States in the Pakistani media, suggesting that the government and military here have spread "deliberate misconceptions and conspiracy theories."

She said the United States and Pakistan needed to "tell the truth" to the media, and more balanced, accurate coverage would help the two countries' leadership restore trust.

"Let's clear away the underbrush," she said to Pakistani and U.S. journalists. "Let's have the kind of open, candid conversation that you and I are having now and that we had earlier today.

"And then let the chips fall where they may. But let's not be misinterpreting or misrepresenting each other, because then we can never, ever find common ground."